Forza Horizon 5 - Mexico

Soldato
Joined
18 Oct 2002
Posts
10,951
Location
Bristol
Jst given Forza Horizon 5 a spin after reading a few rave reviews. 30 minutes in and I'm totally unconvinced - it's just 'silly', the cars out of an airplane, the utterly puerile dialogue. Even the driving/racing isn't particularly inspiring.

What an I missing? Why is this game so highly rated by reviewers? Does it get much better after another hour?

I was looking forward to the new Forza Motorsport but now not so sure.
 
Soldato
Joined
14 Nov 2007
Posts
16,170
Location
In the Land of Grey and Pink
Jst given Forza Horizon 5 a spin after reading a few rave reviews. 30 minutes in and I'm totally unconvinced - it's just 'silly', the cars out of an airplane, the utterly puerile dialogue. Even the driving/racing isn't particularly inspiring.

What an I missing? Why is this game so highly rated by reviewers? Does it get much better after another hour?

I was looking forward to the new Forza Motorsport but now not so sure.

It doesn't really.

Don't get me wrong, I've had my monies worth out of it, but I hate the whole "superstar" paradigm, and the game throws money and cars at you, so you never feel like you've earned them.

Most likely the last Horizon game I'll buy.

Will get the new Motorsport game though, I prefer racing on circuits more, and it looks to have a good SP campaign.
 
Last edited:
Man of Honour
Joined
21 Nov 2004
Posts
45,038
I’d have to agree with a lot of that, it was fun for a good while, but the commentary is cringe, everything thrown at you is far too much and tbh I got to the point where I wondered why I was bothering with races anymore.

Forza Motorsport series seems much less annoying from what I’ve played so far.
 
Last edited:
Associate
Joined
14 Sep 2009
Posts
1,882
Location
Accrington, Lancashire
Jst given Forza Horizon 5 a spin after reading a few rave reviews. 30 minutes in and I'm totally unconvinced - it's just 'silly', the cars out of an airplane, the utterly puerile dialogue. Even the driving/racing isn't particularly inspiring.

What an I missing? Why is this game so highly rated by reviewers? Does it get much better after another hour?

I was looking forward to the new Forza Motorsport but now not so sure.

The motorsport games are much more serious in tone so I wouldn't worry too much on that front, it matches a lot more with simulation feel they are going for. I imagine the new will be very similar.

The horizon games have always been the more arcade focused, less serious games where you can jump in with a few friends and have a bit of a laugh doing some of the races or challenges across the map. Unfortunately they've gotten more and more 'silly' as the series has progressed, probably feeling some need to one up the previous games in the series. The old games had some cringey characters and dialogue but 5 has taken it to new levels, I've disliked it from the outset and really hope it goes away in any future games.

The sense of progression has also been totally destroyed, it used to feel like it took a reasonable amount of time for you to build up cash or unlock the more exotic cars in the early stages of the game, here you get bombarded with freebies constantly, nothing feels earned and you end up with way more than you need very quickly.

Unfortunately The game will feel exactly the same after another hour, there is a little more depth to the driving by messing with the assists and tuning the cars, but that only really feels the best at the lower car classes. If it's not to your liking now, it probably won't be moving forward.

As above, as somebody who has put a lot of time into the series (I still come back to clear the challenges with friends for a monthly series every so often), the next game will have to be a lot different for me to commit again.
 
Associate
Joined
15 Sep 2009
Posts
1,414
Location
London
I finished all the events when it was first released and had fun with it - bought the Hot Wheels expansion and got my money's worth out of that - you end up just playing it to build your car collection though and at some point I thought "you've got hundreds of cars and you're only driving one (Diablo GTR) - time to pack it in."

Still curious to see if Motorsport appeals but typically I'm into the more arcadey racers.
 
Associate
Joined
2 Aug 2023
Posts
3
Location
South Wales
I've played quite a lot of FH5 on Game Pass. I agree the story/dialogue is very off-putting, I almost stopped playing the game entirely after the first couple of hours! However I have since put probably over 100h into the game, mainly just doing the online races. From what I remember with the story, you don't really have to follow it at all after the first hour or two, you can choose to just ignore it and do your own thing.

It is quite fun after you figure out which cars are suited best to your driving style, I think this is the most important thing in the game since there's a lot of difference in how the game feels and consequently how much you'll enjoy it based on the car/setup you use. Then you can do Horizon Open races and get a good variety of different classes and race types to cycle through. Usually a good mix of players online to play against in terms of skill level. Only really frustrating thing is sometimes you'll come across players that just want to ram you away from checkpoints even when nothing has been done to provoke them. I guess this is par for the course with most online multiplayer games, some players just out there to grief others.

The in-game radio is annoying too, I turned it off quite early and just listen to my own stuff.
 
Soldato
Joined
12 Apr 2007
Posts
11,845
Most of the annoying dialogue is part of the extended intro, if you like.
Once you get into the hall of fame the game opens up properly and you don't get it as much.

I've got over a thousand hours logged on it in steam lol!
I've 3 stared everything and got almost all the cars so I generaly only play a few hours a week now, for the co-op weekly races and a bit of open racing.
 
Soldato
Joined
7 Mar 2005
Posts
19,268
Location
LU7
It is quite fun after you figure out which cars are suited best to your driving style
Yeah I've often done a race in a car and found it hard to win. I then re-do the race in another car and its much easier. Annoying when it happens.
The in-game radio is annoying too, I turned it off quite early and just listen to my own stuff.
I turn all the navigation instructions and so on off. It does my head in. The radio stations don't really have much variety and you just hear the same stuff over and over again. I'm surprised Forza never did a link-up with Spotify or something like that to let gamers stream music whilst in-game.
 
Soldato
Joined
12 Apr 2007
Posts
11,845
I'm surprised Forza never did a link-up with Spotify or something like that to let gamers stream music whilst in-game.

I guess it would require a bunch of work and cost to do that, as spotify would want thier pound of flesh and be able to verify in game that the player is a paying subscriber.

Far easier and cheaper all round for a player to just mute the game music and run spotify or internet radio or whatever, or just music from thier own hard drive in the background.
 
Last edited:
Associate
Joined
21 Oct 2013
Posts
2,061
Location
Ild
I guess it would require a bunch of work and cost to do that, as spotify would want thier pound of flesh and be able to verify in game that the player is a paying subscriber.

Far easier and cheaper all round for a player to just mute the game music and run spotify or internet radio or whatever, or just music from thier own hard drive in the background.
Yes, just add Spotify widget to Xbox game bar and you can easily play pause skip etc and mix the audio to suit.
 
Soldato
Joined
9 Nov 2005
Posts
8,654
Location
Southampton
I should have posted something a few days ago, but Forza 5 is on free play at Steam until 1800 BST on 21st Aug and is on promo price starting at ~£25.

I've had FH4 for a while but really struggled with the concept of driving round the map to do races, coming from a sim racing background approx 2005-2017.

So I've been on the fence about FH5, maybe the Forza Motorsport coming out in a few months will be more my thing, but a ~135GB download to try FH5 is a monster download for our pathetic ~20Mbps BB and we barely have room on the Samsung 1TB SSD to install it!
 
Soldato
Joined
12 Apr 2007
Posts
11,845
I should have posted something a few days ago, but Forza 5 is on free play at Steam until 1800 BST on 21st Aug and is on promo price starting at ~£25.

I've had FH4 for a while but really struggled with the concept of driving round the map to do races, coming from a sim racing background approx 2005-2017.

So I've been on the fence about FH5, maybe the Forza Motorsport coming out in a few months will be more my thing, but a ~135GB download to try FH5 is a monster download for our pathetic ~20Mbps BB and we barely have room on the Samsung 1TB SSD to install it!

In Fh5 as you progress in the game you can crash into fast travel boards. The more you get, the cheaper fast travel becomes to festival sites or houses you own.
And owning one particular house will allow you to fast travel anywhere on the map, not limited to certain places.

I don't really drive anywhere now unless for a specific free roam challenge.
 
Last edited:
Back
Top Bottom